Mobile technology is dramatically changing the manner by which people access and consume data and information as well as their expectations with regard to technological capabilities surrounding the mobile paradigm. Consumers of data and information are demanding “always-on,” on-the-go, connectivity, and faster and seamless access to data and information in a platform-agnostic manner. The proliferation of smartphones, tablets, subnotebooks and other portable devices is simultaneously driving and answering this demand as improvements in infrastructure strive to keep up. The consumer expectation is that she will be able to effect through a portable computing device the functionality and features of what previously was the sole province of the desktop computer.
In addition to changing the manner in which data and information is obtained, mobile technology is also simultaneously driving and answering the demand for the type and variety of data and information that is available. For example, in the area of scholarly and scientific research and written works, there is a great demand to access and consume vast amounts and varieties of data and content and other information contained in written works of literature, such as books, treatises, legal opinions, journal articles, magazines or other periodicals, manuscripts, and papers presented, submitted and published by society, industry and professional organizations such as in proceedings and transactions publications. One manner by which users of this scholarly and scientific research access and consume this data and information is through “bibliographic citation.”
“Bibliographic citation” is a sophisticated process and convention for documenting research, supporting materials and organizing fields of study. In order to facilitate the widespread distribution of information published in scholarly written works to more efficiently and effectively move bodies of study forward, scholars and scientists use bibliographic citation to recognize the prior work of others, or even themselves, on which advancements set forth in their written works are based. A “bibliography” may refer to either of a complete or selective list or compilation of written works specific to an author, publisher or given subject, or it may refer to a list or compilation of written works relied on or considered by an author in preparing a particular written work, such as a paper, article, book or other informational object.
“Citations” or “cited references,” as included in any particular work or body of work, is used herein to refer broadly to cited references, bibliographic or other reference data, that collectively form in-text citations, footnotes, endnotes, and bibliographies and are used to identify sources of information relied on or considered by the author and to give the reader a way to confirm accuracy of the content and direction for further study. A citation briefly describes and identifies a cited written work as a source of information or reference to an authority. Citations and bibliographies follow particular formatting conventions to enhance consistency in interpreting the information. Each citation typically includes the following information: full title, author name(s), publication data, including publisher identity, volume, edition and other data, and date and location of publication.
Citations also often include a unique alphanumeric identifier known as a digital object identifier (“DOI”). The DOI system was created by the International DOI Foundation and has been adopted as an International Standard, ISO 26324. A DOI is a character string that is used to uniquely identify electronic documents, including the aforementioned scholarly written work of literatures. Metadata, including a URL or other location of the scholarly written works or other document, is associated with the DOI and stored. While the metadata and URL or other location may change, the DOI is unique and permanent for the document. Thus, a DOI provides a more consistent and stable link for access and retrieval of the document.
The aforementioned scholarly written works may be available through comprehensive reference management systems, such as Thomson Reuters' Web of Knowledge research platform. Such research platforms provide an integrated or integratable system of research and authoring productivity software for use in conjunction with databases of interest to provide access to a vast area of scholarly data and content. For example, Thomson Reuters' commercially-available Web of Science® solution provides citation researching and analysis through bibliographic and citation content and information accessed from commercial, proprietary databases as well as publicly-available citation databases, such as CrossRef and PubMed. These reference management systems may further integrate authoring tools and solutions, for example, Thomson Reuters publishing solutions including EndNote®, EndNote Web®, and Reference Manager®, which are commercially available solutions for creating, writing, publishing, and managing bibliographies, papers, publications, and other scholarly documents.
In view of the increasing demand for “always-on,” on-the-go, connectivity, and faster and seamless access to data and information, improved mobile-enabled systems and processes are needed to provide users of scholarly and scientific research access to cited reference and/or other authoritative databases accessible through intelligent research platforms.